[markl]

A contemporary of Nick Drake and a good friend to the troubled artist, John Martyn even wrote an entire album about his friend called "Solid Air" ('73) which is one of his best.

Martyn is in a similar limbo as Drake (and Jeff Buckley's father, Tim) between jazz and folk. Like Drake, Martyn is an expert guitar player. He's a very expressive singer, and his overall sound/style is very hard to categorize. His work is very moving and well worth checking out if you're into Nick Drake.

Your best bets for John Martyn are:

1. Sweet Little Mysteries (1994). This is a two disc set of his work with Island Records that covers the period from the late sixties to the mid-'80's, his "peak" period. Sound quality is in between the crappy CD masters of the 80s and the best of what can be done today. Very worth checking out, but may be import-only, I'm not sure.

2. Serendipity-- An introduction to John Martyn ('98). This is a single-disc set (17 songs) that also covers his Island career, but only less than half the songs are duplicated from the "Sweet Little Mysteries" 2-disc set. A complete collection includes both. Sound quality of this disc is fully up to modern standards and quite good. I believe this is an import-only release.

Happy hunting!

Mark

 

[Hirsch]

The period in and around "Solid Air" has a number of great albums. Some of his earliest work was done as part of a duo with his then-wife Beverly, and tends toward folkish. As he matured as an artist, a strong jazz influence showed up as well. I've got all of his early work on LP...and finding some of it was a bear at the time, as it wasn't released in the US.

I'm lousy at remembering album titles, but I'd say "Solid Air" is a good one, as is "Grace and Danger" from a bit later on. "Bless the Weather" is another really good early album.

 

[BlindSeer]

Thanks for the recommendation, markl. I downloaded "Bless the Weather" the other day and have been really enjoying it.. definitely going to purchase the album in the near future.

 

[Thesrot]

Inside Out. Inside Out. Must hear Indside Out. zoiks, it's good. Impossible to find on CD in US, I was finally able to get it from Action records in UK. http://www.action-records.co.uk . Steve Winwood, Chris Wood and Bobby Keyes all play on this record. I am also quite into Sunday's Child. The Sweet Little Mysteries anthology is a good start too, just ignore most of the second disc, but they leave the best stuff from Inside Out off the collection. I listen to more John Marytn than everything else put together, sweet sweet stuff.

love... love... love... love... tra la la... triddle dee dee.

Thesrot

 

[Lion Zion]

I've had "Solid Air" on vinyl for many years, but haven't cued it up for some time, so thanks for the reminder. I'll re-listen to it this weekend. Not sure the entire album is about Nick Drake, but the title track sure is. They were friends. Speaking of Nick, anyone have the Fruit Tree box set? Highly recommended. Island has recently re-released Nick's output. The stuff I have is on Hannibal. Anyone out there know if there is an improvement in sound quality. The new labels indicate "remastered", but the sound quality on the Hannibal stuff is pretty good.

 

[markl]

The re-masters are tons better than the original CD issue. The original engineer helped in the re-mastering process (which I believe is 24-bit). They took a lot of care with the new issues audio-quality wise.

mark

 

[Lion Zion]

Thanks for the info, Markl. I know this is of the thread topic, so please forgive. I guess I will have to do the "upgrade dance" relative to the Drake releases. I have the "Way To Blue", the compilation disc which sounds really good. The Fruit Tree box set is great because it is a real, full size box with nice enclosures/photos. The new one is the cd size set. Nick Drake's music for me is timeless and absolutely essential, music I will listen to forever, so perhaps I will spring for the cd's individually and keep the Hannibal box.